


Every Colour Under The Sun

by charlotte123456789



Series: Harry Potter One-Shots [25]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crying, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Potions, Stress, failure - Freeform, working together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:33:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29379264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charlotte123456789/pseuds/charlotte123456789
Summary: Why was this one potion so difficult? Why could he just not get it to work?
Relationships: James/Lily
Series: Harry Potter One-Shots [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2157993
Kudos: 2





	Every Colour Under The Sun

James stared at the book, then at the cauldron, then back at the book. It was green, he did not know why it was green, nor _should_ it be green.

He had spent the last two hours trying to get the potion perfect. It was the last potion he needed to master before taking his NEWTS, and it was all but guaranteed to come up in the exam. Without this one potion, he would not be able to get the grades he needed to get into Auror training and he could all but kiss his dreams goodbye.

But now considering it, was it even worth it? He had been struggling with this one potion ever since it had been taught right at the beginning of the year. Maybe this was just a sign that it wasn’t the career path for him? That he should choose something that didn’t require so much time, effort or concentration on his part?

He stared at the book once more, rage overtaking him, and he threw it at the opposing wall. Why? Why did this one potion have to be so difficult? He had now managed to make it just about every colour under the sun; green, blue, yellow, even neon pink. But never had he been able to turn it into the subtle calming lavender colour that was required.

He inhaled deeply and sighed. The rage that had been all-consuming now made him feel like an idiot for having the equivalent of a hissy fit. He stared once more at the potion, the dark forest-green nowhere near to what he needed. Sighing once more, he picked up the cauldron and carefully walked over to the sink where he could dispose of it and pretend once more that he had never failed.

Cleaning his cauldron was somewhat cathartic, the slow rhythmic motions of scrubbing away at it relaxed his nerves. It calmed him down some more, but all he felt was still an annoyance at being unable to just do this one thing that was required of him. He was still scrubbing away at it when he heard the door squeak.

Turning around, expecting to see Slughorn, he was surprised to see Lily. He hadn’t told her where he’d be that afternoon, just that he’d be gone and would see her again at dinner. Most would just assume he was sneaking about the castle or planning future pranks, but nobody would ever assume that he was alone in a Potions classroom trying to get a potion to work.

“Oh, hi, James, what are you doing here?” Lily appeared startled upon seeing him there. Then again, he would have been too if he were her.

“Um, Lily. Yes, hi. I’m in… detention?” That had to be one of the worst excuses he had ever come up with on the fly.

“You don’t sound too sure about that. You sure that’s why you're here?” 

James cracked. “I just _can’t_ get this potion right, Lils. I just _can’t_ get it to work. It should be so easy and simple, but it just won’t change to a stupid lavender colour like it’s supposed to, and I swear if this goes wrong just one more time, I’m going to get a desk job instead because _obviously,_ I’m not cut out for Auror training if I can’t do this one simple thing!”

By the end of his rant, he was half-shouting and tears were streaming down his face, his shoulders slumping down in disappointment. He just couldn’t understand why one potion could be so difficult for him.

“Okay, James, we’re going to sit down, get a cup of tea, and _then,_ you can explain to me a bit more about this potion and we’ll do it together. Okay?”

Lily, wonderful, mature Lily. She was always the voice of reason, and in this exact situation, he realized just how much he loved her.

He nodded. “Okay. Good plan.” He carefully put down the cauldron that he still clutched in his hands and moved to sit down.

He wiped his sleeve across his eyes and stared across the room. His eyes fell upon the book now sprawled on the floor, the yellow pages stained from all his previous potion-making attempts. The instructions for his specific potion were ingrained into his mind from reading and rereading it so many times. He didn’t even need the book for it. Yet, he still failed. It just didn’t make any sense.

At that moment, Lily decided to sit beside him, already having Transfigured an appropriate teapot, and was going through the motions of brewing tea for the two of them.

“What’s going on, James? Talk to me, and we’re going to get through this together because you’ve never been one to give up when the going gets tough, so don’t start now.”

At her prompting, James complained about how he just couldn't seem to get the potion to work, the mixing, the stirring, the heat, the colour. Each and every single thing that he felt had somehow gone wrong.

“We are going to do it together. You are going to talk me through each step, and then we will make it together. Nothing is impossible if you think you can do it. The potion will be perfect because together, we can’t go wrong. You can learn from your mistakes and have the opportunity to strengthen and improve the next time you do it.”

James stared at Lily in awe. She was confident, enthusiastic, powerful. A person he aspired to be. He nodded. Together they could do this.

They got the cauldron upright from where it was drying as he began to recite the instructions of making the potion. With each correct step, Lily nodded along, and upon getting to the end of it, she smiled at him.

“Perfect. Now let’s do it.”

Step by step, he carried out the instructions, heating, chopping, stirring, cooling, grinding-

“Don’t put that in!” Lily exclaimed, startling him into almost dropping the ground newts eyes into the potion. 

“Why? What’s wrong with it? I’ve done everything according to the instructions.”

“No, normally that would be okay, but in this potion, you need to get it really fine, like _really, really_ fine. I struggled with that so much when making this until Slughorn told me how to do it properly. I just assumed he had gone around the room and told everybody else as well!”

James shrugged; who knew why Slughorn did anything? He followed Lily’s specific instructions on how to grind them down to dust and took a mental note of how it should look. He continued on with the potion, an hour passing, and then another.

It was finally done. He was scared to look at it.

“James, you may want to take a look at it,” Lily said quietly from where she was peering over the side of the cauldron.

He cringed, not wanting to see his newest failure. Nevertheless, he got up and walked slowly over to it. Breathing in deeply, preparing himself for failure, he looked down at the potion.

It was a pure lavender colour, and his heart lurched in his throat at the sight. He had accomplished his task.

“We did it, Lils!” he exclaimed, turning to her and encompassing her in a bear hug. “We did it,” he mumbled into her shoulder, upon where his head lay.

James heard Lily mumble back, “No, James. _You_ did it. You could always do it, you only needed a little prompting just to get it right.” 

Neither of them wanted to pull themselves apart from one another, but dinner would be served in 15 minutes and he had been stuck inside the classroom for hours. He reluctantly pulled himself away from her.

“We better go, Lils. Don’t want to miss dinner now.”

He saw Lily nod her head as she replied, “Wouldn’t want you fading away now, would we? Or after all that trouble, they might not let you into the programme.”

He smiled; with Lily, he could overcome anything life threw his way.

  
  



End file.
